Jesus Jeans

The ad that really got [Emanuele] Pirella noticed was for a brand called Jesus Jeans, launched in 1974 by MCT (Maglificio Calzificio Torinese), the company that makes Kappa sportswear today. According to Pirella, the brand was vaguely inspired by the previous year's hit musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Clearly something provocative was needed, so a young photographer named Oliviero Toscani was hired to shoot a young woman wearing the jeans, the zipper open in a manner that indicated she was not wearing any underwear, while casting a coy shadow over the evidence. Pirella's copy read: "Thou shalt not have any jeans but me."



Mixing fashion, sex and religion — in a Catholic country? No wonder Pirella got himself in the papers. The second execution was the line, "Whoever loves me, follows me,", printed over a pert bottom in denim hot-pants. (The bottom, by the way, was that of Toscani's girlfriend at the time.) The Jesus Jeans brand clearly hasn't stood the test of time, but the furore surrounding the campaign did much for Pirella's career.